Supporting 11 different retro video game systems, including NES, Game Boy and Game Gear, cross-platform emulator Mednafen is a no-nonsense emulator for Windows and Linux. If you love old games but hate collecting emulators this is a program you’ll want to check out.

But it can become confusing, depending on how many kinds of games you’re trying to run. Different old systems need different new emulators. There’s no all-in-one solution to this problem yet, but Mednafen is helpful in reducing the number of emulators you need to install on your system.

Installation

Windows users should head over to the Mednafen releases page and download the executable binary found under the “Microsoft Windows” header. You’ll need to download the portable program and place it in the folder of your choice (Program Files is probably good for consistency’s sake).

You won’t find Mednafen in your applications menu on Linux or Windows; rather, you need to set the program to be the default way to open ROMs. Right-clicking on your ROMs, then clicking “Properties” will reveal the way to do this on Linux and Windows alike. Now you can simply double-click ROMs to open them in Mednafen.

Configuration

There are two main ways to configure Mednafen. The first is to open a ROM, then use keyboard shortcuts to set up things the way you like. Press F1 if you don’t know the keyboard shortcuts and help will show on-screen:

(Tip: if you’re looking to toggle fullscreen, “Alt” and “Enter” is the combination you need).

The other way to configure Mednafen is to edit your configuration file. Linux users will find this file, called mednafen.cfg, in the hidden “.mednafen” directory in your home folder:

Windows users can find their configuation file in Mednafen’s directory. Anything you might want to change about Mednafen you should find in this file, so check it out and turn this program into something you can love.

Justin Pot is a technology journalist based in Portland, Oregon. He loves technology, people and nature – and tries to enjoy all three whenever possible. You can chat with Justin on Twitter, right now.